Sea-railway intermodal trains with containers have played an important role in meeting demand for import and export transportation between the Port of Shanghai and cities in the Yangtze River Delta amid the latest outbreak.

Since March, when Shanghai began coping with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years, a total of 655 sea-rail intermodal trains have kept running with 84,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, up 42 percent year-on-year according to Shanghai Railway Group.

Luchao Port Center, which handles about 90 percent of the city's sea-railway combined transportation, has been in operation day and night during the epidemic to help maintain a stable supply chain and enable the resumption of enterprises.

On Sunday morning, when China Daily arrived at the center, a number of workers were loading and offloading goods with many automobiles waiting for delivery.

Wang Mingwei, deputy manager of the center, said container volume there has reached 40,690 TEUs in March, setting a monthly record, and the number of loading and offloading vehicles on April 4 was 1,038, reaching a daily peak for the center.

"The supply of goods, such as electricity-coal, chemical fertilizers, cereals and ore sands, have been guaranteed, which helps with epidemic prevention and socioeconomic development," he said.